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ETCHINGS OF
CHARLES MERYON
THE GREAT
ETCHERS
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ETCHINGS OF
/
CHARLES MERYON
LONDON. GEORGE NEWNES LIMITED
SOUTHAMPTON STREET STRAND w.c
NEW YORK.CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS
The Ballantyne Press
Tavistock St. London
GIFT
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TOURELLE, RUE DE LA TIXERANDERIE Frontispiece
THE COW AND THE YOUNG ASS . . .
EWE AND TWO LAMBS
THE GALLIOT OF JAN DE VYL AT ROTTERDAM
FROM HAARLEM TO AMSTERDAM
SOUTH SEA FISHERS
CALAIS TO FLUSHING .
A WATER MILL NEAR ST. DENIS
ENTRANCE TO THE FAUBOURG ST. MARCEAU
AT PARIS
THE PAVILION OF MADEMOISELLE AND A PART
OF THE LOUVRE AT PARIS, 1650
LE PONT-AU-CHANGE, ABOUT 1784 .
OLD GATEWAY OF THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE
ARMS SYMBOLICAL OF THE CITY OF PARIS
LE STRYGE
LE PETIT PONT ....
L'ARCHE DU PONT NOTRE DAME
LA GALERIE DE NOTRE DAME .
LA RUE DES MAUVAIS GARCONS
LA TOUR DE L'HORLOGE
SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-MONT
LA POMPE NOTRE DAME, 1852 .
LE PONT NEUF
LE PONT-AU-CHANGE
LA MORGUE
L'ABSIDE DE NOTRE DAME DE PARIS
DOORWAY TO AN OLD HOUSE AT BOURGES
LA RUE DES TOILES, BOURGES, 1853
ANCIENNE HABITATION A BOURGES (THE MUSI-
CIAN'S HOUSE) ....
PLATS
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV
XX/I
XXVII
ivi842823
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATS
ENTRANCE TO THE CONVENT OF THE FRENCH
CAPUCINES AT ATHENS xxvm
LA SALLE DES PAS PERDUS xxix
LE PONT NEUF ET LA SAMARITAINE VUS AU-
DESSOUS DE LA PREMIERE ARCHE DU PONT-
AU-CHANGE xxx
THE RUINS OF THE CHATEAU OF PIERREFONDS xxxi
TOURELLE, RUE DE L'ECOLE DE MEDECINE, 22,
PARIS, 1 86 1 . . . xxxii
RUE DE CHANTRES, 1862 xxxiii
COLLEGE HENRI IV. (FIRST STATE) .... xxxiv
COLLEGE HENRI IV. (LAST STATE) .... xxxv
BAIN FROID CHEVRIER, DIT DE LECOLE, 1864 . xxxvt
LE MINISTERE DE LA MARINE, 1865 ... xxxvii
NEW ZEALAND. NATIVE BARNS AND HUTS AT
AKAROA, 1845 xxxviii
NEW CALEDONIA. A NATIVE HUT ON THE ROAD
FROM BALLORDE TO POEPO, 1845 . . . xxxix
OCEANIA. « PECHE AUX PALMES " . . . . xl
NEW ZEALAND, NEAR BANKS PENINSULA, CHAR-
BONNIERS POINT, AKAROA. ''PECHE A LA
SEINE," 1845 xn
PR£-V0LANT DES ILES MULGRAVES, OCEANIE . xlii
FRONTISPIECE FOR A CATALOGUE, BY ARNAUL-
DET, OF THE WORKS OF THOMAS DE LEU,
THE ENGRAVER xliii
RUE PIROUETTE, AUX HALLES xliv
PASSERELLE DU PONT-AU-CHANGE APRfiS L'lNCEN-
DIE DE 162 1 . XLV
PARTIE DE LA CITE DE PARIS, VERS LA FIN DU
XVIP^^ SIECLE xLvi
LE GRAND CHAtELET, PARIS xlvii
VUE DE L'ANCIEN LOUVRE DU COTE DE LA SEINE,
165I XLVIII
Where M^ryon gave titles to his etchings they are catalogued in French. In all
other cases where there is no generally accepted French version the titles are given in
English.
6
CHARLES MERYON
BY HUGH STOKES
OR two hundred years etching remained the Cinderella
of the arts. Rembrandt laid aside his needle in
1 66 1, and from that date, until the commencement
of the publication of Meryon's Eaux-fortes sur Paris
in 1 85 1, hardly an original etching of any import-
ance was issued to the world.
An adequate reason is difficult to find. From an early period
the great masters delighted to practise this exquisite method ot
illustration. But they viewed it chiefly as a recreation, and allowed
lesser men to develop the art to its fullest extent. Claude did not
touch more than thirty plates, although one of these plates has been
called " the finest landscape etching in the world." Van Dyck's
energy in this field was a mere casual diversion from the more
pressing engagements of his short and crowded career. Clever
craftsmen, like Callot and Hollar, manufactured plates by the
thousand, using burin and needle indiscriminately. With many ot
the Little Masters, who flourished in the Low Countries, pure
etching formed a serious portion of their output. Sons of the
people, they endeavoured to scatter their works amongst a com-
munity which could not afl^ord large canvases, and thus produced
examples of their talent of not less artistic value. To mention every
Dutch etcher who rose above mediocrity would be to enumerate a
list of names of considerable length. The group comprises such fine
painters as Van Ostade, Ruysdael, Paul Potter, Berghem, Adrian
Brouwer, and Jan Both. Then there were minor artists, some or
whom, such as Karel du Jardin, Marc de Bye, and Renier Zeeman,
were to influence so strongly the genius of a Frenchman two
centuries later. Rembrandt overshadowed them all. First amongst
painters, he was at the same time the greatest of etchers.
Rembrandt left behind some three hundred and fifty prints to
delight the eyes,and excite the cupidity, of every succeeding generation
of connoisseurs. Unlike other great painters, these etchings form
an integral part of his artistic life. He etched successfully almost
from the beginning, and this success was owing to the force of his
A 7
CHARLES MERYON
mighty personality. For etching is an intensely personal art. The
gift is a natural one, and cannot be acquired by perseverance or
study. For instance, Rembrandt etched fine plates whilst he was
still a boy. Modern instances give additional confirmation. Whistler
etched some of his best work before he was thirty. Sir F. Seymour
Haden, as a busy surgeon, could not, in the nature of things, have
ever received abundant tuition. Another English etcher, who
produces plates of most distinguished quality, bears rank as an army
officer. Jacquemart, who has transferred to paper the sheen and
colour of the most precious treasures in the Louvre in a manner no
man can dare to equal, seems to have become an etcher without
premeditation. Meryon, the subject of this sketch, was not six
months in an engraver's workroom. These are the men who have
triumphed with the needle, and one would almost say that etching
is an amateur's method. Yet there can be no greater mistake. Not
only is etching a very morass for the amateur to stick in, but the
paths can rarely be discovered, even by the cleverest of draughtsmen.
Etchers, like poets, are born, and not made. The truth can be
demonstrated, over and over again, in any portfolio of prints.
Rembrandt died in 1669, and gradually, as the other Dutchmen
followed their great master, etching became neglected. Perhaps the
art was too spontaneous in an age which daily grew more formal.
Line engraving flourished vigorously, first in France, and afterwards
in England. The two governments deemed it wise to support a
craft which actually reached the importance of a commerce. Indeed
this form of art became an industry. Whilst Madame de Pompadour
etched little plates at Versailles, Louis XV. took an active interest in
the progress of his royal school of engraving at Gobelins. Meta-
phorically these two facts illustrate the relative positions of the
needle and the burin. Artistic courtiers used to etch little plates of
those anecdotes which they could scarcely relate in words. One
cannot say much for the propriety, or lack of it, in the French line
engravings of that age. But etching was hardly so respectable.
Later in the century George III. encouraged English engraving
by the creation of bounties. Most wonderful things were done on
the copper. One must admit that many of the productions of this
period are specimens of misapplied ingenuity rather than objects
of art. The busy engravers issued miracles of workmanship, and
the great artists of the eighteenth century were content to see their
paintings reproduced in line, or in stipple, by the hand of some
dexterous craftsman. Sometimes etching was used to reinforce other
methods. Chodowiecki etched and engraved on the same plate, so
8
CHARLES MERYON
did Wollett. But the great etcher (and Piranesi can hardly be
included under this title) had yet to come forward ; the true artist,
who, with the needle, would draw on the copper his original
impressions, instead of laboriously translating, from the painted
canvas, some other man's ideas.
The ultimate triumph of the Romantic School in France may
have been one factor which influenced the revival of etching during
the second quarter of the last century. With the defeat of the
Classicalists in sight all young artists were on the alert for new or
disregarded technical processes. It is difficult to imagine any master
of the Classical School practising etching. Flaxman's beautiful line
was essentially one for an engraver and not for an etcher. The
invention of lithography intervened, and possibly delayed and
weakened the revival. Lithography, however, lacks that distinction
which is the prerogative of good etching. The best lithograph can
never be other than a simple honest bourgeois in the world of art, it
cannot sparkle. A fine etching is an aristocrat of the first water.
Lithography told the story of Napoleon's peasant army, or the deeds
of Louis Philippe's National Guard, to the best of its ability. A
reaction was bound to follow, and, since that day, we have seen the
decadence, and also the revival, of the lithograph.
Etching has never been popular with the vast public which visits
galleries and buys pictures. This Charles Meryon found to his cost,
and his history is not inspiriting. As a painter he was a failure. As
an etcher he was unnoticed, save by the few persons who knew him
personally. His existence was one of those lives of prolonged misery
and unhappiness which occur so often in art biography. It must
not be thought that these men are always in the depths. There are
times when the soul of the artist, conscious of great achievement,
of ideals successfully reached, rises towards its Creator in a glorious
ecstasy, which no mere layman can ever experience or appreciate.
Meryon deprecated the value of his own work. Yet there must
have been moments, when, gazing at his Abside de Noire Dame, or
La Galerie de Notre Dame, he knew that his genius had given im-
perishable treasures to the world.
II
Charles Meryon was born in Paris, on November 23, 1821*
For most of the facts of his life we are indebted to Monsieur Philippe
Burty's notes, originally published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts
in 1864. These notes were amplified, and an English translation
9
CHARLES MERYON
appeared in 1879. The edition, which was limited, has long since
gone out of print. Nearly forty years have passed since Meryon
died, and there remain but few who knew him personally. Even
they could add little to our knowledge, for Meryon was a reticent
and solitary man. Burty's biography, and a few scattered French
essays of no deep importance, form the scanty material upon which
to base our investigations.
The origin of a genius is always an interesting study. The
family tree of Meryon provokes curiosity, for his parentage is not a
matter of certainty. His mother was a dancer at the Opera House.
Her son always said that she was of Spanish origin, but her name
belongs to France. It is generally supposed that the artist's father
was Charles Lewis Meryon, an English physician who accompanied
the eccentric Lady Hester Stanhope upon her travels in the Orient.
He was the son of Lewis Meryon, of Rye in Sussex. The Meryons
were an old French family, originally of Huguenot extraction. To
the end of his life the etcher belonged to the reformed faith.
Dr. Charles Lewis Meryon was a man of some celebrity, and of
superior ability and culture. Born in 1783, he graduated at Oxford,
studied at St. Thomas' Hospital, and was elected a Fellow of the
College of Physicians in the year of the etcher's birth. He travelled
with, and visited. Lady Hester Stanhope in 18 10, 1819, 1827 and
1837. The two volumes he published, concerning that extraordinary
household at the foot of Mount Lebanon, are from the pen of a
clever and keen observer. One would like to know more of this
physician. Dr. Meryon died in London in 1877.
All the biographers of Meryon accept the paternity of the English
doctor. When Charles decided to become a sailor, Burty writes that
the boy " learnt from the certificate produced upon admission that
his name had not been legitimised by his father until three years
after his birth. This produced a violent shock, which cast over his
life an ineffaceable tinge of melancholy and timidity." These are
quoted as the actual words of Meryon, and would appear to set the
matter at rest. But, on May 29, 1865, he wrote the following
letter to Monsieur Leon Delaunay, which is quoted at length in a
little monograph by Aglaus Bouvenne, published at Paris in 1883.
"They took the pretext that my name did not belong to me,"
Meryon writes, " although my acte de naissatice grants it to me. I
must tell you that in this school of which I have spoken (Pension
Savary, to-day Institution Aubert Savary) I was known under the
name of Gentil, having only assumed that of Meryon when I began
my career in the navy. This name is that of a family residing in
10
CHARLES MERYON
England, and of one of its oldest representatives, Monsieur C. L.
Meryon, whom I long believed to be my father, although he was
only, I think, my guardian. The substance of my acte de nahsance
authorises me to carry this name, and lately, on my proposition to
give it up, lest it should bring annoyance to him, and prejudice to
me. Monsieur C. L. Meryon personally confirmed his former
consent." This assertion does not agree with the statements made
by Monsieur Burty, or any other biographer, and is practically,
although not directly, contradicted by another peculiar document.
In the collection belonging to Monsieur Burty was a large
manuscript book in which Meryon copied many of the letters he
wrote to various people. For safe keeping, he placed between the
leaves some of the letters he received. This interesting volume has
now crossed the Atlantic, and was exhibited by the New York
Grolier Club several years ago. The short preface to the Club*s
catalogue of the etchings contains the following letter, which throws
a new light upon the artist's intercourse with his English connections.
Under the date of January 7, 1866, Dr. Meryon writes :
" My Dear Friend, — You leave me without news of yourself for so long that I
fear you are ill.- Your sister also does not write to me.
" Since my last letter I have had misfortunes of which the death of my dear wife
was the saddest. The others relate only to money matters, which are mended by
economy, but the first has prostrated me so that I have not before this had the heart to
write to you.
" At the beginning of the new year I find myself free from debt, and I am preparing
to send you two hundred francs, if you will accept them. For you will doubtless
remember that the last time I sent you a small sum you accounted it as io much taken
from the enemy.
" Eugenie does not forget you by any means.
" We intend, circumstances permitting, to pay you a visit next spring.
"Jean has married a young French girl of Smyrna, and is stopping in that city at
present.
" The photograph of yourself, so well taken, and which you presented to me some
years ago, hangs on the wall over the fireplace in my bedroom. There I study your
features every morning on rising, every evening when retiring. You much resemble
your dear mother.
" As to Fanny, I wrote to her several months ago, asking for her photograph, but
she would not grant me that favour, saying that she did not have any printed.
" Eugenie has changed but little ; but time has left heavy marks on me, and I
exist at present only by sufferance and the goodwill of God. Always your friend,
« C. L M."
A concluding paragraph asks that letters should be sent to his bankers
in Lombard Street " as formerly."
This letter is one of friendship and affection, which the artist
did not reciprocate. Meryon copied his reply into his commonplace
book. It is dated February 8, 1866, and states that he had not
II
CHARLES MERYON
heard from his father since 1863, excepting through the visit of a
Monsieur Miranda, made in the elder Meryon's name. He then
writes :
" I certainly feel a real pleasure in knowing that you are enjoying as good health
as is possible considering on the one hand your advancing age, and on the other the
misfortunes which have befallen you, and of which indeed the most painful is the death
of Madame M<^ryon, a loss which I, too, who have retained so pleasant a recollection or
her character, feel with sincere and profound regret ; for I have not forgotten, as I have
often said to you, the happy time, free from all care, the sweetest of my childhood,
which I passed in your company and that of that good and amiable lady. , . ,'*
Where did Meryon spend this " happy time " ? Was it in
England ? Monsieur Burty makes no reference to it. The letter
continues : " But, Monsieur Meryon, despite this knowledge that it
is pleasant to me to address you, notwithstanding the respect which
has always been inspired in me by that organising force given to you
by the Creator, to whom, as I see with pleasure, you render homage,"
— and rambles into a number of aimless complaints. Apologising for
his frankness, even brutality, he states that the sum sent by Dr. Meryon
is a trap, a means of hastening his death, and that he cannot accept
it. He does not put faith in the statement regarding Jean, but
believes that he is dead. He does not count on the proposed visit,
which he thinks would be unprofitable and useless, and, as for
Eugenie, she is his pitiless enemy. The letter becomes tragically
incoherent.
There docs not seem to be much doubt as to Meryon's descent,
although he himself is dubious. The fact is of some importance,
for it means that this great artist was of an English stock, which,
generations previously, had fled from France. A more curious inter-
national " give and take " cannot be found in biography. We do not
know from what ancestor Meryon inherited his artistic instincts, but
he was not the first poetaster of his name. About 18 10, Mr. Lewis
Meryon, of Rye, published an unambitious versified description or
the contents of a stationer's shop. Forty years later Monsieur
Charles Meryon, of Paris, was scratching the most extraordinary
rhymes on the edges of his coppers.
The early life of Meryon could not have been one of unalloyed
happiness. Money was probably not wanting. Dr. Meryon is said
to have supplied the mother with a considerable sum, and, according
to one biographer, there were other admirers within call. One
may reasonably doubt this statement. " Intelligent and gentle,
she bestowed upon her son the most ardent affection, and
watched over his early education with unceasing care," wrote
12
CHARLES MERYON
Burty. There was a sister, who was taken away to England, and
who made a most brilliant marriage, which effectually cut her
existence away from the Bohemian household in Paris. The letter
in the commonplace book does not corroborate this story, unless
there were two sisters. Then there was a maternal grandmother,
" a most offensive creature " says Mr. Frederick Wedmore, who
draws a picture of much moral degradation, which, if it existed,
Monsieur Burty ignores.
The child was extremely nervous and excitable, with a tendency
towards bad health. At the age of five he was placed in a school
at Passy, where he does not seem to have been a skilful pupil. One
day he was taken to the theatre. The lights were turned down.
The piece may have been Robert le Diable, for skeletons gambolled
across the stage. Picking up spades they commenced to dig. The
boy was so upset at this danse macabre that he had to go home.
" Mamma," said he, " is it to disgust me with agriculture that the
Government sends skeletons on to the stage ? " Forty years later
the scene haunted his fancy. Upon the whole he seems to have
been as happy as Barty Josselin was at the Institution F. Brossard.
He told Philippe Burty that the situation of the schoolhouse in the
open fields, the playgrounds, the sports, and the good food, all
helped to build up his health and strength. He acquired a little
Latin, and, more important still, he had elementary drawing lessons
from a master who had studied under a landscape painter.
How long he remained at Passy is not clear. Possibly several
years, for he must have been considerably older when he went to
Marseilles, and thence journeyed on a circular tour to Hyeres, Nice,
Genoa, Pisa, and Leghorn. On his return to Paris he had already
decided his future. The shipping at Marseilles influenced his
youthful mind. He obtained his mother's consent, was coached by
a professor of mathematics, and, in 1837, passed into the Naval
School at Brest.
Meryon suffered all his life from a nervous sensitiveness which
was probably congenital. His melancholy and timidity are said to
have dated from the shock he received at this stage when he learnt,
for the first time, the true facts of his birth. The cause, however,
was much deeper. He was hereditarily predisposed towards that
state of mental collapse which ultimately drove him to Charenton.
Morbidly conscious of the slightest slur, always more or less
suspicious, even of his friends, yet frank and gentle in his manner,
Charles Meryon enjoyed his happiest days as a naval cadet. He
was deeply attached to his profession, and, as an amateur, he dallied
CHARLES MfiRYON
with the pencil to good purpose. In 1839 his first voyage com-
menced. He sailed in the Algiers, which left Toulon for the north
coast of Africa and the Levant. At Smyrna he was transferred to
a three-decker, the Montebello.
The voyage was rich in impressions. The youth of eighteen
opened his sketch-book to advantage. In it he drew the Choragic
monument at Athens, then part of the entrance to the convent of
the French Capucines. Fifteen years later this page formed the
basis of that magnificent etching which was buried in Count
Laborde*s book of travel and archaeology. The frieze of the Temple
of Theseus was outlined, the tomb of Agamemnon and the solemn
Lion Gate visited. Here Meryon discovered the beauties of classical
architecture. He studied the works of the Greeks amidst their
actual surroundings. He was never bound apprentice to an office
drawing-board, or chained down to a weary repetition of the Five
Orders, yet, in some mysterious manner, he developed into a
marvellous architectural draughtsman.
With such energy his art must have rapidly improved. Upon
his return to Toulon he had lessons from a painter in pencil, water-
colour, indian ink, and sepia. His work, writes Burty, was
woolly, but the actual drawing correct and delicate. His reputation
as an amateur spread. Like Clarkson Stanfield, he painted the scenes
for the dramatic performances upon his new vessel, the Rhine. This
ship made a prolonged cruise in Australian waters, visiting the Banks
Peninsula, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the South Seas. Years
after, during the course of his grey struggle for life in Paris, Meryon
referred to this sunny voyage with longing and regret.
He was popular with his fellow officers. His disposition was
naturally a happy and gentle one. His sketch-books were rapidly
filled, and he made quaint attempts at sculpture. One story
illustrates his sensitiveness, and also his tenacity of purpose. The
scene was the bay of Akaroa. The captain of the Rhine refused
to allow his officers to go ashore in his gig. They were annoyed at
the restriction, and at the indignity, as it appeared to them, of being
compelled to use a boat common to the whole crew. Meryon asked
for, and received, permission to go ashore. He settled in the forest
some distance from the sea, and got the ship's carpenter to cut down
a large yew with a girth of more than four yards. The tree was
hard in grain, and of an enormous size. For three months Meryon
lived on shore in a little tent. From time to time his comrades sent
him provisions. At night he was compelled to light a fire to
frighten the wild animals which surrounded him. Day after day,
CHARLES MERYON
with the utmost toil, he slaved away at this self-imposed task, wear-
ing his hands literally to the bone. The tree became a boat, five
yards long. So well had it been designed that, when launched, its
sea-going qualities were perfect. Captain Berard was moved to
tears. The boat was brought back to France, and deposited in the
Arsenal at Toulon. The tale is somewhat incredible, but is told on
unquestionable authority.
The cruise ended, and Meryon came back to France. His
mother had died in the meanwhile. He took six months' leave and
went to Paris. Burty remarks that he considered his health weak,
although the fancy had no foundation in fact. The author of the
introduction to the catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club says
that Meryon was induced to leave the navy by reason of his birth.
In his eyes, sailors were, as a body, the noblest, the best of men.
Those who commanded them ought to be great, not only in stature,
but also in mind and morals — he was neither. Their officers
ought also to be men of good position and birth — he was
nobody's son. These are quoted as Meryon's own words. Thus
Meryon appears to have given up all desires for a seafaring life, and
be received a promise from the Minister of the Marine that a post
should be kept vacant for him in the Hydrographical Department.
His mother had left him a small estate of some twenty thousand francs,
and Meryon delayed obtaining an extension of his leave. Suddenly
he received a peremptory notice to rejoin his ship. His sensitive
spirit revolted. He had been treated unjustly. Aggrieved at not
receiving the promised appointment, he at once gave in his resigna-
tion. One authority writes that he was in a state of destitution, as
his pay was five months in arrear. It is hard to reconcile this story
with the fact of his mother's legacy. After some argument his
resignation was accepted, and he received his discharge on September
17, 1846.
At the age of twenty-five, without capital, and with the
slenderest technical accomplishments, Meryon became a professional
artist. He lived in the Rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts, and had a studio
in the Rue Hautefeuille. Although he had washed his hands of the
Ministrv of the Marine, he did not cut all connection with the
Services, for he had lessons of a painter who was also a clerk in the
War Office. Monsieur Phelippes was an old pupil of David, and, as
can be surmised, took himself very seriously. Meryon was taught to
draw in charcoal from casts of the Apollo Belvedere and the Olympian
Jupiter. He also studied anatomy, and copied in the Louvre. His
attitude towards the old masters was not one of reverence. He gave
B 15
CHARLES MERYON
Burty a drawing in red chalk, " which he had copied with minute
exactness from the marvellous drawing by Raphael representing
Psyche holding in her hands a vase of crystal." " In my copy I have
been obliged to correct one of the eyes, which is not in its proper
place," said the young artist.
At length he commenced his first picture, and the preliminary
drawing was sent to the Salon in 1848. Like most early pictures it
was of large size, six feet in length, and represented a grandiose sub-
ject. The Assassination of Marion Dufrene^ captain of a fire-ship at the
Bay oj the Isles^ New Zealand, the 1 3M August 1772, was not a success.
It was morbidly gruesome. Amidst a group of natives kneels the
captain. An executioner raises a club, and is about to deliver the
fatal blow. The whole composition is flat, and Meryon did not
carry it to completion. His next essay he gave up in despair. Inspired
by the Revolution of July, which had taken place in the previous
year, it was purely allegorical.
As a painter his career had already ended. He suffered from
Daltonism, that peculiar disease of the eyes in which one colour is
mistaken for another. His biographer says that he could not
distinguish the ripe fruit on a cherry-tree from its leaves. On his
palette he used red for yellow, and pink for green, whilst some other
colours, such as pure carmine, gold, cobalt, and lapis lazuli, he could
distinguish with extreme delicacy. During one of his naval voyages
the officers were shooting sea-gulls from the quarter-deck.
"What colour do you make out their breasts to be?" asked
Meryon.
" A spotless white," was the reply.
" You are wrong," said Meryon, " the colour is an inimitable
rose."
*' That's impossible. However we'll soon see."
The bird was shot, and its breast was a salmon-coloured rose of
an extraordinary tint.
It is interesting to learn what great masters had most impressed
this young artist. Eugene Delacroix, Decamps, and Hogarth
compose a curious trio. As to Delacroix, he was probably fascinated
by the sentiment, if it is not sentimentalism, which distinguishes all
the works of that artist. Himself a man of moods, a modern Hamlet
who found the world out of sorts, Meryon would be apt to see his
own personality enshrined in the melodramatic heroes of Delacroix.
That a colour-blind painter should admire so vigorous a colourist as
Decamps is difficult to explain. Hogarth's art he had studied during
a short visit to England, made about 1847. Possibly Hogarth
16
CHARLES MERYON
aroused that dormant feeling for the past which, later on, so influenced
his etchings. Still, the choice was an odd one.
Meryon now studied in the atelier of Monsieur E. Blery, the
engraver.
At Blery 's he worked very hard. Burty follows the history of
his development closely. He copied portraits, a miniature of Christ
after Philippe de Champaigne, and engravings after De Loutherbourg,
Salvator Rosa, and Karel du Jardin. But one master, in his bio-
grapher's own words, carried him away, and made him an etcher.
Meryon bought for a few pence some views of Paris, done about
1650 by Renier Zeeman. "He was struck by the dexterous clear-
ness of the lines made with the needle, with the quietness of the
tone, and the brilliancy of the biting." These must have been
Meryon's own words. He caught the style of Zeeman exactly, and
it characterises the whole of the early portion of his work.
Meryon remained six months with Monsieur Blery. His mental
powers, we are told, were already weakening. He fell in love with
the daughter of the proprietor of the restaurant where he had his
food. If such actions are to be accepted as convincing proofs of
insanity, the number of the feeble-minded must be appalling. The
girl who had fascinated the unhappy man, in his own words, " above
all things on account of her charming voice," looked another way,
and Meryon continued his bachelorhood until his death.
Up to this period Meryon's work had been simply one of
preparation. During the two years 1 849-1 850 he had copied plates
after De Loutherbourg, Nicolle, and Zeeman, and it cannot be said
that the result was of great value. But the master who had inspired
his style also directed him towards a choice of subject. In copying
Zeeman's Pavilion of Mademoiselle^ and a Fart of the Louvre, he
conceived the idea of a series of etchings devoted to the city he
loved so well. Between 1851 and 1854 appeared the Eaux-fortes sur
Paris, upon which his fame rests. Unknown and unappreciated
during his lifetime, these twenty plates, of varying merit and
importance, placed him amongst the masters of his craft. "Meryon,"
wrote Sir Seymour Haden, " though neither an etcher or an engraver
pur et simple, was undoubtedly one of the greatest artists on copper
that the world has produced."
His methods were curious. He rarely completed his sketch
upon the spot. Having decided upon his point of view, he would
sketch day after day at the same time. These sketches consisted of
studies of detail, which he endeavoured to make exceedingly exact.
When he arrived home he would stick all these little sketches
17
CHARLES MERYON
together, and make a completed drawing from them. He worked
with a very hard pencil, which he used as if it were a graver. When
drawing, he commenced at the bottom and worked upwards. He
told his friends that buildings were always raised from the foundations,
and he desired to do likewise. Although afflicted with Daltonism,
his keen sight was remarkable, and this explains the minute detail in
many of his etchings. He could distinguish the finest architectural
details, says Monsieur Burty, as well as if he had used a telescope.
Whilst the Paris set was in progress, Meryon lived in some rooms
in the Rue Saint-Etienne-du-Mont. His means were of the smallest.
His livelihood was hardly more secure than that of the wretched
creatures he vaguely outlined on his plates. There was no demand
for his etchings, which he carried from dealer to dealer with scant
result. For the fifteen etchings of the Paris set, eleven large and
four small, he asked the modest sum of thirty francs. For a single
etching he would sometimes accept a franc. In every way he was
a typical example of the unsuccessful artist. In 1853 the Salon
rejected the Galerie de Notre Dame, and the Rue des Toiles, although
he exhibited upon six other occasions. He had few friends, and did
not encourage additions to the circle, for he was suspicious of the
whole world. An old naval chum, the Commandant de Salicis,
visited him, and the two engravers, Flameng and Bracquemond, were
staunch supporters. Baudelaire admired his work exceedingly, and
Theophile Gautier, surely one of the most eclectic and discerning ot
all art critics, attempted to introduce his etchings to the general
public.
It may be well understood that such work was bound to excite
the enthusiasm of the author of " Notre Dame de Paris," who was
himself, although untrained, an artist of no mean order. " These
etchings are magnificent things," wrote Victor Hugo from Guernsey.
" We must not allow this splendid imagination to be worsted in the
struggle in which it is engaged with the Infinite, whilst studying
Nature or Paris. Strengthen him by all the encouragements possible.
The breath of the universe is throughout his work, and makes his
etchings more than pictures. They are visions." This utterance is
grandiloquently Hugoesque, and does not appear to have been of any
material assistance to the unhappy Meryon.
His condition became more and more deplorable. When he went
to deposit some proofs at the office of the Minister of the Interior,
he is said to have been starving. There he found a new supporter.
Monsieur Jules Niel, immediately noting his obvious genius, en-
deavoured to obtain commissions for him. The Due d'Arenberg
18
CHARLES M^RYON
had seen, and appreciated, the Paris set. In 1857 Meryon was
invited to visit Enghien, and etch views of the chateau and its
grounds. A photographic camera was provided, and he took lessons
in the new art at Brussels. He settled in the village of Enghien,
and prepared to work. But his mental distress was rapidly develop-
ing, and, in March 1858, he returned to Paris in a condition border-
ing on delirium.
He was suspicious of the intentions of his best friends. Bracquc-
mond called one day at his rooms, and found the master away. As
an artistic joke, instead of writing a few lines of explanation, he
drew upon the bare wall a fantastic sketch of a bird perched upon a
bough, in the act of snapping up an unconscious fly. The drawing
has been preserved. It has the dainty grace of a Japanese draughts-
man. When Meryon returned and saw it, he was thrown into an
intense agitation. Nothing could calm him. The drawing was a
mystical foreboding of his future. " If you care to know," he cried,
" read on that wall my fate. I can no more avoid what is coming
on me than that fly can avoid the bird."
Daily he became more unsociable. During this period of gloom
he etched the weird Rue des Mauvais Garpns^ with an enigmatic
couplet scratched at its head : " What mortal lived in this sombre
dwelling ? Who hid in the shadow and the night ? Was it Virtue,
poor and silent, or was it Crime, a vicious soul ? I am ignorant.
If you, curious being, wish to know, go and see. There is yet
time." It cannot be said that these lines explain the mystery of the
Rue des Mauvais Garpns. This etching was a favourite with the
poet Baudelaire, to whom, in i860, Meryon wrote, enclosing " un
cahier des mes vues de Paris."
He now lived in a little summer-house in the Faubourg Saint-
Jacques, which belonged to the mother of Leon Gaucherel, the
engraver. He worked intermittently. When he returned from
Belgium, he dug up the garden to find the dead bodies he believed
to be interred in it. Then he kept his bed, and, whenever any one
entered, excitedly flourished a pistol. Such a condition of things
could not continue long unchecked. On May 12, 1858, he was
removed to the asylum at Charenton. The new inmate was oflici-
ally reported as suffering from " melancholy madness, complicated
by delusions."
For fifteen months he remained at Charenton, and, although
he was discharged as cured, he was never far from madness. His
etchings became slightly more popular, and good friends were always
ready to care for him. Even in the asylum, during his first deten-
19
CHARLES MERYON
tion, he was described as being gentle and polite. When he laughed
it was with the laughter of a child.
In a letter written many years after. Doctor Gachet, who knew
Meryon well, gave an interesting picture of the etcher, which has
not been reproduced for the benefit of English readers. " Meryon,'*
wrote the doctor, " was of short stature, of rather a bilious and
nervous temperament, and physically dry and shrunken. He was
simple in his dress, easily took offence, and was guarded in his looks.
He avoided pleasure and comrades. He loved solitude and work.
By nature unhealthy and dull, he was temperate, ate little, and drank
still less. He was always uneasy, and seemed the prey to a disturb-
ing suggestion of some kind. You might have said that his thoughts
wandered away from his body, for at times he appeared to be far
away from, and unconscious of, the society in which he happened
to be. In fact, he did not love society. He dined at my house
more than once, but always with the greatest circumspection, and
after much hesitation. The painter A. Gautier had some influence
over him and seemed to please him. They came together to my
house. It was only with the greatest difficulty that, with the help
of Gautier, I was able to obtain the Eaux-fortes sur Paris, and then
only two at a time.
" Meryon appeared always a prey to the idea which obsessed
him. He promised to let us know the cause of his sadness, and it
was no doubt the starting-point of his mental disease. It was the
origin of it. He found himself unhappy, and believed that he was
alone on earth, surrounded by people with bad intentions.
" His nature was sensitive, straightforward, and delicate, but his
brains were ill-balanced.
" Art, for him, was but a fetish, an ideal one was not to touch.
There were no artists ; art was too difficult. He himself was of no
account. You could not tell him that his work was good, or that
he had talent, it was not possible to praise him in his presence. To
do so was to make yourself his enemy.
" One might aspire towards art, and desire it. But that was all !
" For some things he had a horror. Water, for instance. He
could not think of it, and made no secret of his aversion. One
day I asked him whether he had ever painted marine subjects or sea-
ports. He replied that one should not reproduce water. That the
sight and vicinity of water was sinister and dangerous. These
notions were deeply rooted in him. As soon as he spoke of water
his face assumed a sad and lugubrious air."
At his best, Meryon's company must have been very fascinating.
20
CHARLES MERYON
Monsieur Burty reports a conversation which shows that this serious
man had his happy moments. " At certain dates," he told Burty,
" every work of art that is not without a doubt worthy of preserva-
tion should be destroyed. Of the sculpture, mortar should be made
by means of an enormous crusher. Of paintings they should make
tarpaulins, such as sailors cover packages with on board ship. The
artists would be the first to lend themselves to such a scheme, for if
they had, for instance, made a second-rate statue for the decoration
of a monument, they would be enchanted to see it replaced by a
better. The whole world would be the gainers by it, from the
models who pose for the statues, or the custodians who watch over
them in the museums, to the hewers of stone and the draymen who
transport it to the studio." There is a rich vein of sarcasm in these
remarks, which, after all, are not so very mad.
Meryon, however, was extremely disconcerting to chance visitors.
In one of his books. Sir. F. Seymour Haden relates how he called
upon the artist in Montmartre. The room, high up the celebrated
hill, was exceedingly clean and tidy. It contained a bed, a chair and
a table, together with a printing press for proofs, and an easel. Upon
the easel was a plate, before which Meryon stood and worked. He
was amiable to his visitor, and immediately commenced to talk about
the resources and charms of his craft. Mr. Haden, as he then was,
left with some impressions of Meryon's etchings under his arm.
"While his back was turned," writes the surgeon, "I was scrupulous
to leave on the table what I felt sure was more than the dealers
would then have given for them. We parted the best of friends."
The surgeon had walked fully two miles in the direction of Paris,
and was already in the Rue de Richelieu, when he found that
Meryon was following him. The artist was greatly agitated, and
asked that the proofs might be returned to him. They were of a
compromising nature, and " from what he knew of the etched work
which I called my own, he was determined I should not take them
to England with me. He wrote to the Editor of the Ga^zette
des Beaux-Arts to caution him against being taken in by me, and
to impart to him the conviction that the plates, which I pretended
to have done, were not done by me at all, or even in that century,
but that doubtless I had discovered and bought them, and signed and
adopted them as my own."
So passed the final years of this strange genius. He worked
intermittently upon his plates. He received a commission from the
Museum of the Louvre. He etched feeble reminiscences of his early
travels in the South Seas. They bear no sign of the power of the
21
CHARLES MERYON
creator of the "Eaux fortes sur Parts. His mental disease increased,
and his behaviour became erratic in the extreme. Some days he
believed that the Jesuits were trying to entrap him. His most
enthusiastic admirers were called thieves and rascals, and he refused
to have further dealings with his best friends.
Many years later (in January 1880), Sir Francis wrote a letter
concerning Meryon and his relations in England. It was published
in the Athenaum.
" I am in receipt of a courteous communication,** writes the celebrated surgeon,
" from Dr. Meryon, the cousin of Charles Mdryon, \rhich gives me the assurance that
the penury in which, to all appearance, Meryon lived and died, was in a great measure
self-imposed, and in no sense an indication that he was either forgotten or disowned by
those near of kin to him. Dr. Meryon is good enough to explain — and with his per-
mission I hasten to make this explanation public — that Charles M^ryon*s father (the
London physician alluded to by writers, myself among them) was for forty years — four-
fifths of Meryon's lifetime — in Syria with Lady Hester Stanhope, and therefore unable
to see his son ; but that his comforts and interests were constantly looked after by a
sister who was much attached to him, while he, the present Dr. Meryon, himself, never
failed to visit him, or to supply such few wants as he could be brought to confess to
whenever occasion took him to Paris ; in a word, that the difficulty of doing much for
him rested, as we may well suppose was the case, mainly with poor Meryon himself.**
This last sentence probably sums up the truth, but there is one flaw
in the statement which remained uncorrected. Lady Hester Stan-
hope left England for the East in 18 10, and she died at Djouni in
1839. Dr. Meryon was not with her during the whole of these
twenty-nine years, and when he returned, to practise as a London
physician, Charles Meryon had nearly thirty years to live. Judging
from the letters previously quoted, Meryon was not on good terms
with this unknown sister. A quarter of a century has elapsed since
this letter was written, and these varying facts cannot now be
verified.
To describe Meryon's doings is to recapitulate the disordered
fancies of a maniac. On October 12, 1866, he was again taken to
Charenton. To a certain degree he recovered, and worked, like a docile
child, upon the coppers which were placed before him. One recrea-
tion was to write long and incoherent letters. In 1 867 he was so much
better that a doctor accompanied him to the Universal Exhibition,
where several of his etchings were to be seen. A violent storm
broke out and finally shattered his reason. He did not recover from
the relapse. He believed himself to be Christ held captive by the
Pharisees. There was not enough food in the world, and he would
not wrong the poor by taking their sustenance. He refused to eat,
and, on February 14, 1868, died of exhaustion brought on by
starvation.
22
CHARLES MERYON
A few days later his body was laid in the cemetery of Charenton-
Saint-Maurice. A large brass, engraved by Bracquemond, serves as
his memorial. Upon it were drawn the tools of his art, and an
adaptation of his own etching of the arms of Paris. No better
symbolism could have been imagined for the resting-place of such a
true Parisian.
Ill
Meryon's renown as an etcher rests chiefly upon his Paris set.
With the exception of a few other subjects, his minor work is
interesting only because it comes from his hand. When we examine
the Paris set we find them notable for two separate qualities.
Technically they represent the highest mastery an etcher can com-
mand over his materials ; artistically they possess a mysterious
atmosphere which few etchers have sufficient personal temperament
to feel.
Mr. Ruskin once said that etching was a bewildering art.
Meryon's proofs refute this extraordinary remark immediately.
The etcher's needle is one of the most slippery of instruments, but
Meryon was able to control it with unfaihng exactitude. He was
always sure of his hand whether it guided the needle or the graver.
He knew exactly where to set his lines, and how to place them.
Mr. Ruskin, in one of his books, speaks somewhat disrespectfully or
the " Art of Scratch." In early impressions of Meryon's best plates
there is not an unnecessary scratch, although his nervous restlessness
spoilt the later states of some of his finest plates. La Tour de /' Horloge,
a magnificent piece of drawing, was perfect as a composition until he
broke it up with long shafts of streaming light. Although he had
all the craftsman's passionate love for technique and the joy of owning
complete command over his tools, yet Meryon neverallowed technique
and mere sleight of hand to overwhelm his art. A friend said that
he was " the most downright honest fellow in the world." These
words can be applied to his etchings, which are examples of true
work, without the slightest afl^ectation.
Even higher than his technical accomplishment was his poetical
imagination, which enabled him to draw architecture in a manner
no artist has rivalled. In his etchings of Paris the very stones seem
to breathe. Paris is not a town, said D'Herisson years ago ; it is a
living being, with moments of fury, folly, stupidity, enthusiasm,
honesty, and purity. Meryon was not the first man to find this out.
Balzac, a clear-headed student, refers to it in his " Histoire de
23
CHARLES MERYON
Treize." The streets of Paris, he wrote, have human qualities.
Their physiognomy impresses us with ideas we cannot contend
against ; some streets provoke a sensation of nervous melancholy.
In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, " certain old houses demand
to be haunted."
Identical feelings swept across Meryon's mystical temperament,
and, being a rare artist, he was able to interpret them fully. He
lived in the past, and for the past. The glories of the Second Empire
had no attraction for him. Probably he detested it, more for the
ravages of Baron Haussmann than for the bloodshed of the coup d'etat.
He was not an adherent to the Napoleonic cause. For him, the
national banner still flew emblazoned with the lilies of France, and,
in his existence, St. Louis was no dead saint, but a living reality.
Dr. Gachot said that Meryon was frequently absent-minded when
in company. His dreams transported him to another age. In Mr.
Wedmore's little book upon the etchings are a few lines which reveal
at a glance Meryon's outlook towards modern life. Practically he
was hardly cognisant of it. M. Jules Andrieu was introduced to him
in the winter of 1 8 60-61. Taking up an early impression of he
Stryge, Meryon said : " You can't tell why my comrades, who know
their work better than I do, fail with the Tower of St. Jacques. It
is because the modern square is the principal thing for them, and the
Middle Age tower an accident. Even if they saw, as I see, an
enemy behind each battlement and arms through each loophole ;
if they expected, as I do, to have the boiling oil and the molten lead
poured down on them, they would do far finer things than I can do.
For often I have to patch my plate so much that I ought indeed to
be a tinker. My comrades are sensible fellows. They are never
haunted by this fellow {Le Stryge). The monster is mine, and that of
the men who built this Tower of St. Jacques. He means stupidity,
cruelty, lust, hypocrisy, they have all met in that beast." On another
occasion Meryon took his copy of an old illuminated drawing to M.
Arnauldet and M. de Montaiglon at the Louvre. The print repre-
sented Louis XL surrounded by his court, receiving a presentation
copy of a book. One of the officials complimented Meryon upon
his skill, and also for the marvellous exactness with which he had
reproduced the mediaeval sentiment of the drawing. Meryon replied
with a flood of explanation, which lasted over an hour. Naturally
he could reproduce the feeling of such work. He had lived with
these people. He knew all that was said, all that was done, by each
of the personages. He knew their friendships, their hatreds, every
detail of their lives.
24
CHARLES MERYON
" Nothing was more foolish than the story he told us," relates
M. Anatole de Montaiglon. " But nothing was more explicit. It
was clear and living, with a rough eloquence, full of sparkle, and
always remarkably intelligent. We said nothing. To approve was
to encourage ; to contradict was to exasperate."
In other words, Meryon was a visionary. So was Blake, who,
in character and disposition, was of a similar type. His biographer,
Gilchrist, specifically mentions the influence of " the spirit of the
past," which enabled his dreaming eye to see palpable shapes from
the phantom past. As a boy he had seen such crowds of angels'
that their wings bespangled every bough with stars, and this power
of seeing visions strengthened with years. Blake made a careful
distinction between ghosts and visionary beings. " Ghosts did not
appear much to imaginative men, but only to common minds, who
did not see the finer spirits. A ghost was a thing seen by the gross
bodily eye ; a vision by the mental." Applied to Meryon, these
words have much signification.
As Blake drew his visions upon his plates, so did Meryon. They
were sketched in pencil above the Pont-au-Change. They are to be
found in certain states of the College Henri IF., and the Rue de rEcole
de Medecine, In the small Ministere de la Marine, troops of aerial
horsemen ride across the sky of the Place de la Concorde. Critics
explain that these plates have been spoilt by their author's insanity.
Was it always insanity ? We accept visions at Patmos, but deny
them at Paris. The opinion of mankind as to the supernatural is
a shifting one. The visionary is generally called a fool, although
often, in the phrase of M. de Montaiglon, he is " remarkably
intelligent." The human race has always had a suspicion that some
minds can read the future. One day we may awake to the discovery
that some eyes can see the past possessing an additional sense only
allotted to the rarest temperaments.
This palpable atmosphere of the past forms an essential part ot all
Meryon's etchings of Paris. Living alone he brooded over life in all
its aspects, and noting only its darker aspects, was not pleased with
the cosmic order. Had he lived a few years later he would probably
have revisited New Caledonia in the company ot so many other
French dreamers as a convict Communist. He had been a
philosopher from the beginning, and his sympathies had always
been with the weak and downtrodden. At Akaroa he sketched
a little mushroom, afterwards etched with the title of Le Malingre
Cryptogame. Ephemeral, distorted, and puny, he said that it
seemed entirely typical of the inclemency, and at the same time
25
CHARLES MERYON
the whimsicality of an incomplete and sickly creation. In this
respect he differed from Blake, who wrote of another fragile plant :
" I am a waterjr weed,
And I am very small, and love to dwell in lowly vales ;
So weak, the gilded butterfly scarce perches on my head.
Yet I am visited from heaven."
Meryon could never have written the last sentence.
As historical documents Meryon's original etchings of Paris and
Bourges have an exceeding value. It is difficult to re-create the
Europe of a century ago. We can only do it with the aid of such
men as Samuel Prout and other artists, who, like Turner, travelled
across the Continent sketching every ruin or decayed timber gable
which caught their fancy. Since those days the spirit of commerce
has vulgarised the old world, particularly in its large towns. Old
buildings have been restored or destroyed, almost an identical fate.
An electrical generating station represents the materialistic energy of
the twentieth century. There are many who can sigh, as Meryon
sighed, for the time when the spirit of the age was reproduced in a
fa9ade at Amiens, or a spire at Antwerp. In the present resistless
whirl even the gasometer is becoming picturesquely old-fashioned,
and assuming a genteel air of antiquity. The few towns still
enriched with the great work of wonderful craftsmen are desecrated
by mobs of foreign tourists, who disturb the charm of ancient streets
with an ignorant knowledge.
Meryon had a foreboding of the changes which were about to
come, and he tried to preserve some remembrance of the things that
were dear to him. Concerning Bourges, he wrote : " I found in
the streets, on the outsides of the houses, most curious effects of con-
struction, principally of a kind which is rapidly disappearing, because
it is not counted of sufficient importance to be either restored or
preserved." It must have been with mingled feelings that he
witnessed the inroads Baron Haussmann made into the rookeries of
his cherished city. Had Meryon possessed good health, and received
proper encouragement, Paris might now own an amazing portfolio
of topographical prints, which would also be a miracle of art.
One has only to compare Meryon's work with that of Martial-
Pothement, an industrious etcher who left over three hundred etch-
ings of old Paris, to discover the difference between the interpretation
of a genius and that of a clever mediocrity. Not once did Martial
rise to the simple dignity of Meryon's best work. Never did he
catch Meryon's atmosphere of mysterious suggestion, which is so
subtly conveyed in the Rue des Mauvais Garpns, or La Morgue,
26
CHARLES MERYON
Meryon took few of the liberties with his subjects which a poetical
landscape painter thinks necessary. He forced the colour in some of
the etchings, making the buildings appear darker than they actually
are. The name Lutetia refers to the whiteness of the houses, and
Paris has not changed in this respect. His wonderful etching of the
Morgue can be placed by the side of an interesting print, artistically
valueless, published in 1848. The " chapelle ardente" of misfortune
and crime (according to Charles Nodier), and the surrounding
houses, are as Meryon drew them. One print has the expressionless
exactitude of a photograph ; the other has the sombre imagination
of a grim line of poetry.
" I hope these drawings will fix your imagination on the things of
the past," wrote Meryon to Baudelaire. This is the artist's message
to those who are interested in his work. As to his character,
each man must form his own opinion. We cannot tell how genius
is formed, or why one should be gifted and not another, but some of
its manifestations are explainable. Meryon's peculiar temperament
was the result of his environment and his physical condition. In the
ideal future, which Mr. H. G. Wells and M. Anatole France are so
busily imagining for us, there appears to be no place for the weak or
the unfit. They will not be allowed to exist. Happiness will be at
the beck of all, suffering will be reduced to a minimum. Relieved
from the necessity of toiling for bread, even the old will kick up
their heels and skip like young lambs. The picture is an alluring
one, but this ideal community will lack some things we find worth
possessing. It will have no great poetry, no great music, no great
art. In this grave world, the finest creative art is generally the fruit
of personal pain and private grief Its authors have paid for it in
agony and neglect. Meryon's wonderful art, as with that of so many
poets, painters, and musicians, was founded upon suffering. When
death released him in the madhouse at Charenton, his soul joined
those who, like him, had already found this life overflowing with
bitterness. "Joy and gladness, these shall be their portion, and tears
and sighing shall flee from them."
27
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS
OF CHARLES MERYON
In this list b stands for the catalogue of M. Philippe Burty,
and w for that of Mr. Frederick Wedmore.
With the exception of the Paris set, which follows the
published sequence, the order is chronological.
EARLY WORK. 1 849-1 850
COPIES OF MASTERS
1. The Holy Face b i w 78
This was M6ryon's first etching, from a miniature after a painting by
Philippe de Champaigne. M. Burty wrote that he had seen a copy,
which is now in America.
2. The Cow and the Young Ass b 2 w 63
After de Loutherbourg. There are two states, the second being smaller,
with the signature, C. M. d*aprh de Loutherbourg.
3. EwE AND Two Lambs b, page 34 w 62
Published on the same page as " South Sea Fishers,* in " L*Artiste " for
December, 1861. Mr. Wedmore calls it a copy after A. Van de Velde,
but "L'Artiste" says it is after Adrien Van Ostade.
4. The Sheep and the Flies b 5 w 64
5. The Three Pigs before a Stable b 6 w 65
6. Two Horses b 7 w 66
These three prints are reversed copies from Karel du Jardin. Each one is
signed C. M. d'aprh K. D. J,
7. A Soldier (full face) b 3 w 67A
After Salvator Rosa.
8. A Soldier (in profile) w 67
After Salvator Rosa
9. A Shepherd b 4
After Stephano della Bella
10. A Shepherdess w 67B
29
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
11. The Galliot of Jan de Vyl at Rotterdam b 12 w 72
Three states: (i) before house on bank, and before initials, (ii) with
initials, before the angles of copper plate rounded off, (iii) signed C. M.
(Tapris Zeemariy with angles rounded.
12. From Haarlem to Amsterdam b 13 w 73
Two states, the second having the angles of the plate rounded.
13. South Sea Fishers b 14 w 75
Two states : (i) signed C. M. cTapres Zeeman ; (ii) as published in
"L'Artiste" in 1861, with signature Meryon in full.
14. Calais to Flushing b 15 w 74
Two states : (i) angles of plate square, (ii) angles or plate rounded.
These four preceding plates are reversed copies of Renier Zeeman's
set entitled Recueil de plusieurs navires et paysages faits cPaprh U naturely
published about 1650.
15. A Water-mill near Saint Denis b 10 w 70
16. The River Seine, and the Angle de Mail at Paris b ii w 71
1 7. Entrance of the Faubourg Saint Marceau at Paris b 9 w 69
18. The Pavilion of Mademoiselle, and a Part of the Louvre
AT Paris b 8 w 68
These etchings were done after those by Renier Zeeman, published at
Amsterdam by Clement de Jonghe about 1650, entitled Fues de Paris et
de ses environs. These plates, particularly the last, suggested to M6ryon
the idea of his own Paris set. They are signed C. M.j or C. Meryon
aprh Zeeman,
19. Le Pont-au-Change, about 1784 b 20 w 28
To the left, above the houses, the Tower or St. Jacques. M. Burty
mentions a trial proof, before the sky, and three states : (i) before the rope,
(ii) with the rope, but before lettering, (iii) as published. Mr. Wedmore
mentions two, (i) before letters, rare, (ii) as published. A trial proof was
sold in i860 at a sale for 14 francs.
ORIGINAL WORK. THE PARIS SET. 1851-1854
20. Eaux-fortes sur Paris, par C. Meryon, MDCCCLII b 31 w i
The cover for the Paris set. Printed on grey paper, and representing a
block of limestone from the Montmartre quarries. One state only.
21. "A Reinier, Dit Zeeman, Peintre et Eau-fortier" b 32 w 2
Forty-two lines of verse, forming a dedication to the painter whose
works had inspired Meryon to commence his etchings of old Paris. One
state only.
22. Old Gateway of the Palais de Justice b 33 w 3
Frontispiece to the set, with an inscription on the banneret, Eaux-fortes sur
Paris par Meryon. Burty has three states : (i) before publication line, on
same plate as " Tombeau de Moli^re," (ii) before letters, which is
Wedmore's first state, (iii) as published, Wcdmore'a second state.
30
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
23. " Qu'Ame pure rougisse " B 34 w 4
Verses on Paris, beginning with this line.
24. Arms Symbolical of the City of Paris b 35 w 5
Trial proofs before letters, and then publication state.
25. " FlUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR " B 36 W 6
A variation of the arms of the city. M. Burty says that M^ryon did
not obtain permission to publish this etching, which seemed to hint at the
terrorism of the Empire. A woodcut, with variation, appeared in the
Gaxette des Beaux- JrtSy 1864, and was repeated on a Paris Guide published
in 1867.
26. Le Stryge b 37 w 7
The tower is St. Jacques, the distant hill, Montmartre. Four states : (i)
with initials C, M.y (ii) with the verse, in Gothic letters,
" Insatiable Vampire, Teternelle Luxure
Sur la Grande Cite convoite sa pdture."
(iii) the verse omitted, (iv) printer's address added. Wedmore's first state
is Burty's second.
27. Le Petit Pont b 38 w 8
"The towers of Notre Dame are much too high, regard being had to
their real dimensions and the laws of perspective." — Burty. There are
four states : (i) before any lettering, (ii) CM. in upper right corner, (iii) with
title, puh/i^ par rartiste^ and printer's name and address, (iv) with title
in capitals, date iSso., and the number 2. M. Burty makes five states,
inserting after (ii) the same state with omitted dry-point marks.
Wedmore's first state agrees with the second mentioned here.
28. L'Arche du Pont Notre Dame b 39 w 9
The first of the set, having been commenced by Mdryon in 1850. Three
states : (i) "with cross-hatching on the underside of arch," mentioned by
M. Burty only, (ii) artist's name and address with date ; this is Wedmore's
first state, (iii) printer's name and address added, also initials C. M.
Mr. Wedmore mentions a state with C. M. alone. M6ryon at first used
a mechanical appliance in making the sketch, but the results were useless.
** A photograph neither ought," said he, " nor can enable an artist to
dispense with a drawing. It can only aid him, while he works by
assurance and confirmation, by suggesting to him the general character
of the actuality which he has studied, and often by discovering to him
minor details which he had overlooked. But it can never replace studies
with the pencil."
29. La Galerie de Notre Dame b 40 w 10
The following states : (i) In the left corner C. Miryon del. sculp.^ i8s3y
in the right. Imp. Rue N' St.-Etienne-du-Mont, 26 (M. Burty chronicles an
earlier state, which he numbers as the first), (ii) address omitted, monogram,
title. La Galerie N.D.y and five jackdaws added, (iii) printer's name and
address added, and number "4." The view from this window is
described by Victor Hugo in " Notre Dame dc Paris," the chapter being
that entitled " Paris k vol d'oiseau.'*
c 31
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
30. "La Rue des Mauvais Gar^ons" b 41 w 11
Formed the tail-piece to the first part of the set. Three states :
(i) before letters, (ii) with artist's name and address, (iii) with verses added.
31. La Tour de l'Horloge b 42 w 12
The Palais de Justice stretching along the Quai des Orfevres, the bridge
being the Pont-au-Change. M. Burty quotes a state in which the dry-
point work in the sky is incompleted. Then follow (i) the completed
plate before letters, (ii) initials C. M. added, (iii) title and address of
printer, (iv) title in capitals. There were several changes in this plate, for
M^ryon broke up the composition by making long beams of light strike
across the plate, the river front being, in his opinion, " too uniformly
dark and devoid of interest." He also modified the bridge, and removed
some of the shops of the Pont Neuf. The bell in this tower gave the
second signal for the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
32. {Frontispiece) Tourelle, Rue de la Tixeranderie b 43 w 13
This tourelle, built at the angle of the Rue du Coq, was demolished in
1851. Three states: (i) before letters, (ii) with initials C M., Wedmore's
first state, (iii) with title, printer's address, and the number 6,
33. Saint-Etienne-du-Mont b 44 w 14
The portico of the church as seen between the College du Montaigu (now
demolished) and the Panthdon. The plate was much altered in its details.
M. Rurty chronicles four states, Mr. Wedmore five : (i) with initials
C. M., (ii, iii) different actions of the workmen on the scaffolding, (iv)
title on the stones of the Pantheon (this is M. Burty's third state), (v)
the words added, Pancien CoUige de {Montaigu^ also printer's name and
address.
34. La Pompe Notre Dame. 1852 b 45 w 15
(i) Artist's name and address with date, 1852, in pure etching, the lettering
reversed, (ii) lettering re-engraved, and plate touched up with the burin,
this state not mentioned by Mr. Wedmore, (iii) title added with printer's
name and address, (iv) title in capitals with number 5, (v) C. M. instead
of C. Meryon, " His pleasure in constructive work, however humble, is
shown by his close and careful following of the woodwork in its darkest
and furthest recesses. His fame would be assured if it rested only on the
rendering of the labour of men's hands, from the fretted roof of the
cathedral to the intricate timbers of the engine-house."
35. La Petite Pompe b 46 w 16
Frontispiece to the second part of the Paris set. " The only issued state
has Mdryon's name and address, and is very rare." — Wedmore. In the
catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club it is called the tail-piece to
the second part of the set, which appears inaccurate. Some trial proofs in
existence.
36. Le Pont Neuf b 47 w 17
M. Burty indicates several states which appear to be trial proofs, (i) With
names of artist and printer, (ii) with eight verses (this is Mr. Wedmore's
first state), (iii) verses omitted, (iv) a chimney omitted and the houses
lowered, (v) title in capitals, printer's name and address, initials C. {M.y
32
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
date i8sOf and the figure g. Mr. Hamerton writes of this plate : " When
M6ryon comes to the rounding of the far-projecting cornice where the
gleam of sunshine falls, he follows every reflection with an indescribable
pleasure and care. The wonder is how the delighted hand could work so
firmly here, that it did not tremble with the eagerness of its emotion, and
fail at the very moment of fruition."
37. Le Pont-au-Change b 48 w 18
On the right is the Palais de Justice. M^ryon made many alterations on
this plate. The first published state seems to be that with the balloon
Speranza^ (ii) a number of small balloons added (this may have been a later
state), (iii) all balloons omitted, and a crescent moon added with many
birds. There is another state with a balloon named Vasco de Gama.
M. Burty differentiates eight states and Wedmore four. " Mdryon
had the idea that, at the close of day, eagles and other birds of prey
were let loose from the Tuileries, whose threatening flight carried
trouble in the peaceful minds of the citizens, and recalled to them the
triumph of the coup d'ltat of 1 85 1 ." — Burty.
38. L'Esp£rance b 49 w 19
A set of verses to accompany Le Pont-au-Change.
39. La Morgub b 50 w 20
M. Burty mentions two trial proofs. There are five states : (i) before any
letters, (ii) artist's name and address and date, (iii) lettering across the
faces of the houses, which M^ryon considered had a secret signification in
harmony with the subject ; the title added, (iv) address of printer added,
(v) Imagerie religieme^ exportation added to inscription across the houses.
40. L'HOTELLERIE DE LA MoRT ' B 5I W 21
Eight verses to accompany the last plate.
'* Venez, voyez, passants !
A ses pauvres enfants
En m^re charitable,
La Ville de Paris
Donne en tous temps gratis,
Et le lit et la table."
41. L*Abside de Notre Dame de Paris b 52 w 22
The " noble basilique" from the Pont de la Tournelle, on the left the
Pont-aux-Choux and the Hotel Dieu. M. Burty mentions two existing
trial proofs. Six states : (i) before any letters, (ii) artist's name and
address, (iii) date removed, (iv) title inserted, (v) title in small capitals
with date, (vi) M^ryon's name added, with number 12.
42. "O Fin D^gustateur de Tout Morceau Gothique"
These verses, written upon a few early proofs of the " Abside," appear to
exist on a small separate plate, signed and dated. Not catalogued by
Burty and Wedmore.
43. Le Tombeau de Moliere b 53 w 23
Tailpiece to the set. One state only, with Meryon*s name and address.
33
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MlfeRYON
ORIGINAL WORK. 185 1-1859
44. Doorway to an Old House at Bourges b 57 w 33
Etched in 1851, and additional work added in 1864. This plate is
exceedingly rare. Two states.
45. La Rue des Toiles, Bourges. 1853 b 58 w 35
M^ryon wrote to M. Burty : " All the upper portions of the houses are
true to nature ; the lower parts had, however, been so disfigured by modern
restorations, that I obtained from other quarters of the town details which
would best accord with the upper stories." Five states : (i) artist's name
and address, (ii) these, together with a dog, omitted, (iii) a young soldier
and a woman added, (iv) title added, (v) printer's name added.
46. Ancienne Habitation a Bourges b 59 w 34
It was said that this house was built by a musician who had made his
fortune. The pillar at the angle is in the shape of a flageolet. Three
states : (i) before the initials C. M. (not mentioned by Mr. Wedmore),
(ii) C. M. added, (iii) title added for the Gazette des Beaux-Arts,
47. Book Plate or Address Card for M. Rochoux b 54 w 47
Printed in red and black. M. Rochoux was a printseller who appreciated
M^ryon's work. The two figures represent the two rivers, the Seine and
the Marne. At the back is the Palais de Justice, beneath, the statue of
Henri IV. on the Pont Neuf. Three states : (i) a lamp under the arch,
(ii) a boat replaces the lamp, (iii) "the cables knotted at the lower
angles." — Burty.
48. Entree du Couvent des Capucins Fran^ais a Athenes b 16 w 32
This etching forms the frontispiece to the Count L. de Laborde's
*' Athenes aux xv., xvi. et xvii. siecles." Paris, 1854. Poor Meryon's
name is spelt wrongly in each instance in this book, where the etching is
described as being after an engraving by le Roy. The Choraic Monument
of Lysicrates now stands detached. Meryon had sketched it during his
voyage, and M. Burty states that he was also indebted to a photograph.
There aretwo states, the first being before letters. The plate is exceedingly
rare.
49. L'Attelage
Twenty-six lines of verse, beginning " Un cheval se trainait triste et tctc
baissde," dated 1856. Exhibited at the Grolier Club. Not catalogued by
Burty or Wedmore.
COPIES. 1853-1859
50. Plan of the Battle of Sinope b 21 w 79
Coloured in water-colour.
51. La Salle des Pas Perdus b 17 w 76
After Androuet Ducerceau, the architect of the Pont Neuf. Meryon
copied the original plate, for which he had much admiration, in 1855.
M. Burty notices three states : (i) before the inscription, (ii) with the
inscription, and plate reduced in size, (iii) with the inscription and the
printer's name and address, the copper having been cut below marginal line
at bottom. The first Wedmore state includes the inscription.
34
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
52. Le Pont Neuf et la Samaritaine vus au-dessous de la PREMiiRE
ARCHE DU PoNT-AU-ChANGE B I9 W 29
The arch in the foreground is that of the Pont-au-Change. " Between
the houses which line the Quai de la M^gisserie and the monument of
the Samaritaine, is seen the angle of the Gallery d'Apollon, with the
Pavilion of Charles IX," — Burty. " This plate and that of the Pont-au-
Change were worked by Meryon after drawings by Nicolle, but at an
interval of five years ; this belonging to 1855, while the Pont-au-Change
is dated 1850." — Catalogue of Burlington Fine Arts Club. The origin
of the title of " La Samaritaine " is not generally known. On the elevation
of the pumping-station which supplied the Tuileries and the Louvre with
water, facing the bridge, was a sculptured 1 group of Jesus receiving water
from the Woman of Samaria ; hence la Samaritaine. There was also a
chiming clock, "a very rare dyall of several motions," according to John
Evelyn. Burty mentions three states : (i) delicate sky, (ii) before lettering,
marginal line completed, (iii) with inscription.
53. Chenonceau b 18 w 77
Reduced from a plate by Ducerceau, for a book published in 1856.
54. Chenonceau w 77A
Another view of the castle.
55. A View of the City of San Francisco b 22 w 80
This large plate (measuring 39 in. by 9I in.) was a source of great
trouble to Meryon, who engraved it from five photographs for two
bankers, at the price of 1200 francs. M. Burty says that it hastened the
course of his mental disease.
56. The Ruins of the Chateau of Pierrefonds b 23 w 81
After a sketch from nature by Viollet le Due, the architect. Etched by
Mdryon during his first residence at Charenton. Burty catalogues two
states.
ORIGINAL WORK. 1860-1866
57. TouRELLE, Rue de l'Ecole de M£decine, 22, Paris. 1861 b 55 w 24
In this house Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, and in the
earlier states there is a symbolical representation of Truth, Justice and
Innocence. Mr. Wedmore mentions four states, M. Burty seven.
Mr. Wedmore's first state contains the title and legend, (ii) these are
altered and the symbolical figures disappear, (iii) rays of light cross the sky,
and two birds are added, (iv) the words Gazette des Beaux-Arts added. This
is M. Burty*s seventh state.
58. Rue des Chantres. 1862 b 56 w 25
This plate was destroyed after one hundred impressions. A print was
hung in the Salon of 1863, but attracted no attention. M. Burty mentions
four states, Mr. Wedmore two : (i) before title, (ii) with title, date, and
printseller's address. There is a curious mistake in Mr. Wedmore's
description of this print, as he says the spire belongs to the Sainte Chapelle.
It is that which surmounts the leaden roof of Notre Dame, for the Rue de
Chantres runs in a northerly direction from the church to the Quai-aux-
Fleurs. At a corner of the ancient street lived Hdloise and her uncle,
the Canon Fulbert. The house which stood in Abelard's day has long
since vanished.
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
59. College Henri IV. (Two). 1864 b 83 w 58
There are several states of this magnificent panoramic view, taken from
the top of the Panthi'on. In the last state Meryon engraved initials on
some of the houses, " memorials of his friendships and his loves. Thus we
have P. S., i.e., Philippon and Salicis, two of his most intimate friends, for
the first of whom he worked this plate in 1864. Also D. N., the initials
of one of the ugly girls of whom poor Meryon fancied himself at different
times desperately enamoured." Burty gives four states, Wedmore five.
States i-iii (Burty and Wedmore) contain a fantastic background, which
was replaced by houses.
60. Bain froid, Chevrier, dit de l'Ecole. 1864 b 84 w 27
There are two states, the first being before letters.
61. Le Ministere de la Marine. 1865 b 82 w 26
Burty gives three states : (i) before sabre on ground, (ii) with monogram
C. M.y (iii) with title.
62. Le Pilote de Tonga b 60 w 36
A prose description of the pilot, with a border. The second state contains
the printer's address.
63. Le Malingre Cryptogame b 61 w 37
A mushroom which Meryon saw at Akaroa. Burty mentions three states,
Wedmore two, the last having title.
64. Head of a New Holland Dog b 62 w 38
65. Voyage de la Corvette "Le Rhin" — Nouvelle Zelande.
Greniers Indigenes et Habitations A Akaroa. 1845 b 63 w 39
Four states. The plate was etched in i860, and a proof exhibited at
the Salon of 1865.
66. Grand Case Indigene sur le Chemin de Ballorde a Poepo. 1845 b 64 w 40
Four states mentioned by M. Burty.
67. OCi&ANIE— PfiCHE AUX PaLMES. 1 845 B 65 W 4I
Four states mentioned by Burty.
68. PicHE A LA Seine b 66 w 42
Three states given by Burty. An impression of the third state (with one
boat) was exhibited at the Salon of 1 864.
69. A Cover for the New Zealand Etchings b 67 w 46
Burty gives four states, but Wedmore gives two, the first being before
letters.
70. Etat de la Petite Colonie Fran9Aise d'Akaroa. vers 1845 b 68 w 43
Trial proofs and published states.
71. PRi- VOLANT des Iles Mulgraves, Oceanie b 69 w 45
72. La Chaumiere du Colon w 44
Trial proof, first state before letters, then with title as published.
36
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
73. Petit Prince Dito b 70 w 59
Unintelligible verse with a slight figure.
74. Rebus— La Vendetta. 1863 B 77 w 55
An anvil on a block, with a woman washing the letter D in a tub.
75. A Rebus w 56
Two coast views, a coffin, and a horn. Mr. Wedmore says the subject is
De Morny.
76. A Rebus — B£ranger b 78 w 57
A bird and a table, with verses.
77. Design for the Frame for a Printer's Portrait b 79 w 54
A large number of varying states.
78. Verses to M. Eugene Blery b 7 i w 48
Sixteen lines commencing " A vous, Bl^ry, mon Maftre."
79. Verses to M. Eugene Bl£ry w 48A
The same verses on a smaller plate.
80. La Loi Lunaire b 72 w 49
A mad arrangement of coffin-shaped boxes, in which mankind, according
to M^ryon, should sleep upright.
81. La Loi Lunaire b 73 w 50
With a single coffin, instead of two.
82. La Loi Solaire. 1865 b 74 w 51
On one of these prints M^ryon wrote " mais Tcau froide, glacde, que j'ai
oublide,** a trace of his morbid dislike of water.
83-84. Ideas to prevent the Forging of Banknotes b 75-76 w 52-53
85. Frontispiece for a Catalogue by Arnauldet of the Works of
Thomas de Leu, the Engraver b 80 w 61
The lettering was not done by Mdryon.
WORK PARTLY ORIGINAL, BUT BASED ON MATERIAL
SUPPLIED BY OTHERS. 1860-1866
86. Rue Pirouette, aux Halles b 24 w 30
This charming plate was etched after a drawing by Laurence, as M^ryon
could no longer stand the annoyance of working in the streets. We are
told that the original drawing was a very bad one, and that the animation
is entirely M^ryon's. There are five states : (i) before lettering (rareX
(ii) C. 3i. et L. on chimney, with the title. Rue Pirouette^ i860y and
inscription on wall (twenty impressions only were struck off), (iii) artist's
and printer's names added, inscription on wall altered, (iv) title in full,
and C. 3ii, et L. omitted, (v) inscription on wall again altered and
" Laurence et M^ryon " added to left-hand wall.
37
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES M^RYON
87. Passerelle du Pont-au-Change, APRis l'Incendie de 1621 B 27 w 84
From a drawing belonging to M. Bonnardot. M. Biirty mentions six
states : (i-iv) before title, (v) printed with title in italics for the Gazette
des Beau»-Arts^ which appeared in November i860, (vi) title in small
capitals, as published. Wedmore's first and second states correspond to
Burty's fourth and fifth.
88. Partie de la Cite de Paris, vers la Fin du XVIIme Siecle b 28 w 31
After a drawing belonging to M. Bonnardot. Three states: (i) with
M^ryon's name on an advertising board, with date, (ii) Au cana omitted
on this board, (iii) the whole inscription on this board omitted, and in its
place, Au repu. Le sobre resta. Poissons fr. " This plate afforded to
M6ryon's friends one of the most convincing proofs of his unfortunate
malady. . . . M6ryon pretended that the towers of Notre Dame, and the
chimneys of the houses, had been effaced in the original drawing by evil-
disposed persons, and he insisted on placing them in his etching." — Burty.
COPIES. 1 860-1 866
89. Presentation to Louis XL of the work "VALiRE Maxime" by its
Printer. 1475 b 25 w 82
Facsimile of a miniature belonging to Meryon's friend, M. Niel, Librarian
to the Minister of the Interior. M. Delisle, Librarian of the National
Library, was of opinion that the miniature after which the etching was
made does not represent the presentation of the book to Louis XI. Burty
mentions two states, and vaguely writes, "the monogram C. M.
constitutes the mark of a fourth state."
90. Chevet de St. Martin-sur-Renelle b 26 w 83
After Langlois, a Norman architect. Two states. The second state has
at the head of the plate the words Mimo'ires de la SocUtl de Antiquairei de
Normandie.
91. Le Grand Chatelet a Paris b 29 w 85
After a drawing attributed to NicoUe, but the date is also said to be 1780.
The plate was destroyed after 100 impressions. Burty's first state seems
to be a trial proof ; his second state, before letters, is Wedmore's first state ;
final state, with lettering as published. After one hundred impressions
the plate was destroyed.
92. Vue de l'ancien Louvre du c6Ti: de la Seine b 30 w 60
Etched after a picture by Zeeman in the Louvre, and completed just
before Mdryon went to Charenton for the second time. A commission
from the French Government. Two states, the first being before letters.
This etching appears to have been included by Burty twice, Nos. 30 and
81.
93. Portrait of M^ryon b 85
No copy is known to exist.
94. Portrait of M. Decourtive b 86
95. Portrait of M. Eugene Bl£ry b 87
After Buttera. No copy known.
38
A LIST OF THE ETCHINGS OF CHARLES MERYON
96. Portrait of M. Casimir Lecomte b 88 w 86
After Gustave Boulanger. Two states, the first being before the
inscription.
97. Portrait of Evariste BoutAY-FATV b 89 w 87
After David d*Angers. Three states.
98. Portrait of FRAN90IS Viete b 90 w 88
Two states.
99. Portrait of Pierre Nivelle, Bishop of LugoN, 1 584-1600 b 91 w 89
After a print of the period. Etched on tin.
100. Portrait of Acrippa d'AubignI b 92 w 90
After a lithograph.
1 01. Portrait of Jean Besley b 93 w 91
After J. Isaac. Three states.
102. Portrait of Rene de Burdigale b 94 w 92
After Crispin dc Pas. Three states.
103. Portrait of Arm and Guieraud b 95 w 95
After a photograph.
104. Portrait of Louis Jacques Marie Bizeul b 96 w 93
After a photograph. Four states given by Burty.
105. Portrait of Benjamin Fillon b 97 w 94
After a photograph. Two states given by Burty.
39
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE I
THE COW AND THE YOUNG ASS
AFTER DE LOUTHERBOURG
PLATE II
EWE AND TWO LAMBS
PLATE III
AFTER ZEEMAN
THE GALLIOT OF JAN DE VYL OF ROTTERDAM
PLATE IV
ts^m^
FROM HAARLEM TO AMSTERDAM
AFTER ZEEMAN
PLATE V
SOUTH SEA FISHERS
AFTER ZEE MAN
PLATE VI
AFTER ZEEMAN
CALAIS TO FLUSHING
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PLATE XI
OLD GATEWAY OF THE
PALAIS DE JUSTICE
PLATE XII
ARMS SYMBOLICAL OF THE CITY OF PARIS
PLATE XIII
LE STRYGE
LE PETIT PONT
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PLATE XVI
LA GALERIE DE NOTRE DAME
PLATE XVII
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LA RUE DES MAUVAIS GARfONS
PLATE XVI II
LA TOUR DE L'HORLOGE
PLATE XIX
SAINT- ETIENNE-DU-MONT
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PLATE XXI
LE PONT NEUF
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PLATE XXIII
LA MORGUE
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PLATE XXV
DOORWAY TO AN OLD HOUSE AT BOURGES
PLATE XXVI
LA RUE DES TOILES, BOURGES, 1853
PLATE XXVir
ANCIENNE HABITATION A BOURGES (THE xMUSICIAN'S HOUSE)
PLATE XXVIII
ENTRANCE TO THE CONVENT OF THE FRENCH CAPUCINES,
AT ATHENS
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PLATE XXXII
TOURELLE, RUE DE L'ECOLE DE MEDECINE, 22, PARIS 1861
PLATE XXXIII
RUE DES CHANTRES, 1862
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PLATE XXXVI
BAIN FROID CHEVRIER, DIT DE L'^COLE, 1864
PLATE XXXVII
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LE MINISTERE DE LA MARINE, 1865
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PLATE XLII
PR6- VOLANT DES ILES MULGRAVES,
OCEANIE
PLATE XLIII
FRONTISPIECE FOR A CATALOGUE
BY ARNAULDET OF THE WORKS OF
THOMAS DE LEU, THE ENGRAVER
PLATE XLIV
RUE PIROUETTE, AUX HALLES
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